Evaluation of workplace safety performance in the Chinese petroleum industry

Reform of the Chinese petroleum industry has entered its second phase since early 1999. The productivity of the petroleum industry has been greatly improved, while the safety performance and records are not satisfactory. This paper investigates the critical factors for improving safety performance in the Chinese petroleum industry. The data used for the analysis are from a questionnaire survey administered to 480 professionals in the petroleum industry in which 143 valid responses were received. Statistical analysis techniques are used to analyze the data collected. The findings revealed that the most significant source of the safety problem is due to the combination of several reasons, including (a) violation on operating procedures, (b) obsolete facilities and equipment failures, (c) insufficient safety management system, (d) improper commands, number of casualties, and (e) production performances and operating skills. The three most essential protective methods include safety training and increasing staff's safety consciousness, cultivating safety culture, and enhancing equipment management and detecting hazards in time

Studies on the aggregation-induced emission of silole film and crystal by time-resolved fluorescence technique

In this Letter, the photoluminescence of 1,1,2,3,4,5-hexaphenylsilole (HPS) and poly{1,1-[(1,2,3,4,5-pentaphenylsiloly)oxy]-1-phenyl-1-undecyne} (PS9PA) was studied in detail by time-resolved fluorescence technique to investigate possible mechanisms of their unique aggregation-induced emissions. Enhanced emissions and long lifetimes of HPS and PS9PA films were detected in PMMA matrix compared to those of their solutions. Furthermore, strong fluorescence with nanosecond lifetimes was also obtained in the single crystal of HPS. These results show that intramolecular vibrational and torsional motions can act as efficient nonradiative pathways for the excited states to decay in the solutions and that suppression of these motions by restricting intramolecular vibrations in the solid state leads to enhanced fluorescence

Muon-spin relaxation measurements on the dimerized spin-1/2 chains NaTiSi2O6 and TiOCl

We report muon spin relaxation (muSR) and magnetic susceptibility investigations of two Ti3+ chain compounds which each exhibit a spin gap at low temperature, NaTiSi2O6 and TiOCl. From these we conclude that the spin gap in NaTiSi2O6 is temperature independent, with a value of 2*Delta=660(50)K, arising from orbital ordering at Too = 210K; the associated structural fluctuations activate the muon spin relaxation rate up to temperatures above 270K. In TiOCl we find thermally activated spin fluctuations corresponding to a spin gap 2*Delta=420(40)K below Tc1=67K. We also compare the methods used to extract the spin gap and the concentration of free spins within the samples from muSR and magnetic susceptibility data.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Can social inclusion be evaluated? Investigating the psychometric properties of the social inclusion intervention scale

The present study aims to validate a newly developed Social Inclusion Intervention Scale (SIIS) using Exploratory Factor Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The participants were 128 children aged 45-84 month-old from local integrated preschools in Hong Kong. The factor structure of the SIIS fit the data well (RMSEA = .08, NFI = .92, and TLI = .95, CFI = .96, SRMR = .04), with good convergent validity (all CR values > .92, all AVE values > .61). The internal consistency was good across items (all α values > .91) and factors (all CR values > .92). Hence, the sample obtained from the clinical trials of this study showed a good model fit, which suggested that the SIIS is adequate in measuring social inclusion among preschool children in social inclusion intervention programmes. The implications of the two emerged themes of social inclusion from the findings, Relationships and Acceptance, are further discussed to ascertain how they shed light on the design of social inclusion intervention

Laser ablation loading of a radiofrequency ion trap

The production of ions via laser ablation for the loading of radiofrequency (RF) ion traps is investigated using a nitrogen laser with a maximum pulse energy of 0.17 mJ and a peak intensity of about 250 MW/cm^2. A time-of-flight mass spectrometer is used to measure the ion yield and the distribution of the charge states. Singly charged ions of elements that are presently considered for the use in optical clocks or quantum logic applications could be produced from metallic samples at a rate of the order of magnitude 10^5 ions per pulse. A linear Paul trap was loaded with Th+ ions produced by laser ablation. An overall ion production and trapping efficiency of 10^-7 to 10^-6 was attained. For ions injected individually, a dependence of the capture probability on the phase of the RF field has been predicted. In the experiment this was not observed, presumably because of collective effects within the ablation plume.Comment: submitted to Appl. Phys. B., special issue on ion trappin

Raman and fluorescence contributions to resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering on LaAlO3_3/SrTiO3_3 heterostructures

We present a detailed study of the Ti 3$d$ carriers at the interface of LaAlO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$ heterostructures by high-resolution resonant inelastic soft x-ray scattering (RIXS), with special focus on the roles of overlayer thickness and oxygen vacancies. Our measurements show the existence of interfacial Ti 3$d$ electrons already below the critical thickness for conductivity and an increase of the total interface charge up to a LaAlO$_3$ overlayer thickness of 6 unit cells before it levels out. By comparing stoichiometric and oxygen deficient samples we observe strong Ti 3$d$ charge carrier doping by oxygen vacancies. The RIXS data combined with photoelectron spectroscopy and transport measurements indicate the simultaneous presence of localized and itinerant charge carriers. However, it is demonstrated that the relative amount of localized and itinerant Ti $3d$ electrons in the ground state cannot be deduced from the relative intensities of the Raman and fluorescence peaks in excitation energy dependent RIXS measurements, in contrast to previous interpretations. Rather, we attribute the observation of either the Raman or the fluorescence signal to the spatial extension of the intermediate state reached in the RIXS excitation process.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Multi-Objective Optimization of Transonic Compressor Blade Using Evolutionary Algorithm

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/77106/1/AIAA-14667-294.pd

The QCD string and the generalised wave equation

The equation for QCD string proposed earlier is reviewed. This equation appears when we examine the gonihedric string model and the corresponding transfer matrix. Arguing that string equation should have a generalized Dirac form we found the corresponding infinite-dimensional gamma matrices as a symmetric solution of the Majorana commutation relations. The generalized gamma matrices are anticommuting and guarantee unitarity of the theory at all orders of $v/c$. In the second quantized form the equation does not have unwanted ghost states in Fock space. In the absence of Casimir mass terms the spectrum reminds hydrogen exitations. On every mass level $r=2,4,..$ there are different charged particles with spin running from $j=1/2$ up to $j_{max}=r-1/2$, and the degeneracy is equal to $d_{r}=2r-1 = 2j_{max}$. This is in contrast with the exponential degeneracy in superstring theory.Comment: 11 pages LaTeX, uses lamuphys.sty and bibnorm.sty,; Based on talks given at the 6th Hellenic School and Workshop on Elementary Particle Physics, Corfu, Greece, September 19-26, 1998 and at the International Workshop "ISMP", Tbilisi, Georgia, September 12-18, 199

Failure of Mesenteric Defect Closure After Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass

Routine closure of mesenteric defects after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass may not be an effective permanent closure